15 arrested for attempted housing development invasion

News2424 Mar 2020, 05:40 GMT+10

A large group of people arrived by taxi just after midnight on Sunday to illegally occupy a housing development under construction in Cape Town's Eersterivier, according to Human Settlements MEC Tertius Simmers.

Simmers said the group was dropped off near the Forest Village Housing Development and "these residents forcibly opened and invaded eight units".

"The preliminary investigation indicates that back doors were forced open with crowbars, and the estimated damage is currently at R100 000."

Fifteen people were arrested by the City of Cape Town's Law Enforcement Unit and the SA Police Service's Public Order Police.

Simmers commended the swift response and warned that illegal occupations would not be tolerated.

"Further units could've been damaged had it not been for their intervention," he said.

App

He urged people to download the WCGApp in the Google Play store to register for housing for the first time, or to update their details, especially if contact information had changed.

The project under construction cost R1.1 billion and started in January 2016.

It is expected to be finished by December 2020, with 4 820 "housing opportunities".

"Housing opportunities" come with a permutation of qualifiers, including whether a person is on the housing waiting list or if they qualify for a subsidy.